Many plant varieties are subject to the devastating effects of bacterial infection. For example, fruit trees, such as pear and apple, are susceptible to a disease known as "Fire Blight". Plants infected during the bloom period experience damage to the flowers. Furthermore, the infected branch may die and/or the infection may spread, which can cause death of the tree. Ultimately there is a reduction of crop yield.
In the United States, there have been repeated reports of losses of fruit tree crops due to fire blight. While the losses are localized, the disease affects plants throughout the United States. Fire blight also has been noted in other countries such as New Zealand, Great Britain and Mexico. In those countries, affected crop plants include pear, apple, prune and quince. In most cases of fire blight outbreak, generally, entire trees are lost to the disease.
Once fire blight is diagnosed, the farmer is faced with the decision of destroying the infected trees to prevent further spread of the disease to other trees in the immediate area or treatment. It is known that fire blight is caused by a bacterium, Erwinia amylovora, and treatment thereof includes the spraying of trees with streptomycin. However, that treatment is ineffective.
It is of extreme importance that an efficacious and cost-effective treatment be devised for controlling or curing bacterial diseases of plants. The annual losses to the farmer are high and thus there is a need for a robust treatment for use in a wide variety of plants that remains simple to use.